Best Lenses for Pet Photographs "On Location"

I am trying to assemble the lenses I will need for most pet portraits. I am starting a business photographing pets on location (I go to the clients home rather than them coming to a studio).

I use a Canon EOS Digital Kiss (a renamed Rebel Xti) and so far I have been shooting with a standard zoom lens (28-105mm) and a speedlite flash.

My concern: I love my zoom, but the lowest f stop on it is a 4, and I wonder if portraits would be better with a "Fixed" lens: an 85mm or 100mm.

I like the zoom, because when the pet is moving a lot (kittens for example) I can adjust accordingly and I worry about taking successful portraits with a fixed lens, when I can't make adjustments like that. OTOH, I face variable lighting situations; since I go to different homes. Some homes I've been in are really dark, and the fixed lenses have a low f stop (1 or 2) which I uderstand makes them fast and very sharp for portraits. Also, they have the ability to "blur" the background.

I am working on building a business, and would appreicate advice on lenses from pro pet photographers.

Thanks,

Tori

It all depends on what you are doing, how you want it to look, how you are lighting it and all that jazz.

Yes, a larger aperture lens will allow you to do a lot more selective focus.

Each lens has its strength and really it is what your vision is. Is it the big headed dog look? Which is artsy and almost silly? Go with a super wide angle. Is it true realistic portraits, like you would want to see in canvas? Go with a longer lens and smaller aperture.

I have everything from 11mm-200mm, Some F2 lenses, and I use them all for different reasons.

Not a definitive answer, but, then it is not a definitive thing

Hi Tori,
as Julie says, it isn't carved in stone. I have my "basic" lens which I use for dog shows and most in-home "studio type" portraits (those where I bring my studio lights): it's the Canon 28-135 F3.5-5.6 IS. It's not fast and it's not as sharp as some of the L lenses but it works for me in a wide variety of settings.

I also have the 85 F1.8 which I use for candids and selective-focus portraits both in the studio/home and outdoors. I back that up with the 50 F1.4 when I want to work closer or have a wider field of vision.

And sometimes I use my 70-200 F4L for candids outdoors. At F4.0, it creates lovely isolation at shorter focal lengths.

If I were to advise on one "bread & butter" portrait lens, it would be something like the 28-135 IS, the 24-105 F4L IS or the 17-55 F2.8IS. All have excellent optical specs and the IS really helps if you have to throw toys with one hand while holding the camera in the other.

For what you're doing, the best single lens is a really good zoom. Later, you can think about acquiring "portrait lenses" like the 85 or the 50 or the 100 F2.0. IMHO.

Hope this helps,

Jim

Thanks, Jim and Julie. I'd like to ask one more question Jim, to clarify your response. You wrote that the best lens for what I"m doing os a really good Zoom. Since we both use Canon, what do you think of the 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II zoom? (My specific lens Should I look at something else, or can I get a good start with this one?

Also, is it acceptable to post pictures here? If so, I can post a couple of portraits and you can see what I"m shooting with the lens I have.

Thanks, Tori

Tori,
of course it's appropriate to post pictures here! That's the whole idea -- to share what we do so we can all learn to do it better.

I don't know about the zoom you have. I've not personally used it. I have used the 17-55 F2.8 IS and it's exceptional. It's also expensive. I've used the 24-105 F4L IS and it is also exceptional and fairly expensive. I've owned and used the 17-40 F4L and it's a very nice lens at a very good price. I loved the image quality from it. I currently own the 28-135 F3.5-5.6 IS and it's very good and relatively inexpensive (around $300).

From my experience, the IS is a major advantage when shooting animal portraits hand-held which is the only way I do it. What can I say, I should probably use a tripod but I get better angles and quicker reaction time when I hand-hold.

To give you some comparisons, here's a shot with the 28-135 IS @ F5.6.



Here's a shot with the 85 F1.8 at F1.8.



And the 50 F1.4 at F9.0.



Here's the 24-105 F4L at F4.5.



And again at F8.0.



This is the 17-40 F4L at F5.6.



And finally (whew), the 17-55 F2.8IS at F5.6.



The thing to keep in mind is that all of these lenses produce excellent images when stopped down to F6.3 or smaller. The better ones produce equally good images wide open. You have to decide what type of shooting you do and then what lens will meet those needs. For example, most of my formal portraits -- either indoors or outside -- are shot with either studio strobes or a 580EX which allow me to shoot the 28-135 stopped down to F8. So I get some pretty decent sharpness out of it.

All of the other lenses I've mentioned here produce excellent images. It's more a question of what you can afford. The primes are wonderful but tend not to get as much use. There have been times when I couldn't get the shot without having either the 85 F1.8 or the 135 F2.0. But when it comes to controlled environments with controlled lighting, the zooms provide a lot of flexibility.

If you have a specific question, just ask. And please post some of your images so we can see what you usually shoot.

Jim

Thanks so much, Jim. How do I attach my pics to a message, like you did?

Tori

You can host them free at http://photobucket.com and then use the img code to post on here

Tori,
it goes like this: first you host your images on a site like Pbase or Photobucket and then as you type your post or reply, you press the "image" hot key under Instant UBB Code and a box will come up that shows you the site address: http://
you paste the address of the image after the http:// and at the end, add ".jpg" and it will come up in your message.

Be sure to add the .jpg and be sure to preview your post to make sure you put in the addy correctly. I usually open a new window and copy it from that window into the NWP post.

It takes some practice but once you get it, it's not all that hard.

You can always add the photos as attachments as well but that's a bit more cumbersome.

Jim

Here Are some of my pictures:

You missed Tori.

The image tag you need looks like this
[img]urltoyourfilegoeshere[/img]

All:

I do have a pbase account, but I'm not familiar with How to get individual URLs for those images. Can anybody help me with this?

Tori

When you go to your pbase account and click on a thumbnail to open an image, the url directly to it is in the address bar.

One trick to remember with pbase urls is that you have to add /original.jpg to the end of the url before the [/img] tag. You could also use /medium or /small, but I don't recommend it.

BTW, we have family in Newalla, Edmund, and a few other places around OK City.

Thanks to both the Jims for the help! It's a small world, Jim Poor; I grew up in Edmond OK and I know it well.

Now at last, some of my portraits. All photos were shot with a Canon EOS 28-105mm lens, mostly either 35mm or 55mm.This is Skye:



And This:



The next ones are of a 6 month old kitten. I had less control over the background for these; the owner chose the backdrops, and because he's a friend I didn't want to make a fuss about the busyness of two different blankets. Also, he really wanted the collar to stay on, while my inclination is always to take it off.

still having problems, apparently......

Thanks to both the Jims for the help! It's a small world, Jim Poor; I grew up in Edmond OK and I know it well.

Now at last, some of my portraits. All photos were shot with a Canon EOS 28-105mm lens, mostly either 35mm or 55mm.

With the tortie kitten, I had less control over the background for these; the owner chose the backdrops, and because he's a friend I didn't want to make a fuss about the busyness of two different blankets. Also, he really wanted the collar to stay on, while my inclination is always to take it off.

[image]http://www.pbase.com/torigregory/image/105195049/[/image]

[image]http://www.pbase.com/torigregory/image/105195085/[/image]

[image]http://www.pbase.com/torigregory/image/10519517/[/image]

[image]http://www.pbase.com/torigregory/image/105195189/[/image]

[image]http://www.pbase.com/torigregory/image/105200977/[/image]

Notes:

All of these were shot with a Canon EF 28-105mm zoom lens. I had less control over the backdrop in the photos of the tortie kitten, as the contrasting colors were the owner's choice. The collar's appearance in the picture was also the owner's choice; my tendency is to take collars and tags and things off, unless they add soemthing to the picture. For example, the pink flowers on Skye's collar (in the last pic) bring out the pink highlights in her blue-gray fur.

Thanks for your patience while I figured out how to post pictures here- I think I have it down now! Comments on the captures are appreciated.

Tori

And here are two more:

Tori,
make sure the image you're linking to in Pbase is not "original" size. I usually link to the large thumbnail. Otherwise, you get huge images that are bigger than the screen.

This may be the trickiest part of being on this list and you can tell James just what you think of this cumbersome process .

Keep trying.

Jim

They are displaying fine for me Tori, though it may be because I am on Firefox. I don't know. I try not to post photos larger than 600px, as they load more quickly for those on slower connections. I am on a cable connection so these loaded fine for me

The photos look nice, exposed well and you have your focus down well. The flash is a little heavy in some of these and very flat. You could get an off camera flash cord and move the flash to create different flash patterns, more like strobes.

Tori,
looks like you managed to get it. Overall, I like your images. They are relaxed and unposed (how do you pose a cat anyway) and I like the tight cropping on Skye's headshots especially.

What are you using for lighting? I noticed on the larger views that the images had a lot of noise so I assume you were shooting at a pretty high ISO.

The only other issue for me is that on the tortie kitten, the background is a bit busy. Also, that first image looks a bit soft to me (not quite in focus).

Shooting cats is very difficult. You do a very nice job of it. I tend to concentrate on dogs but my cat, OJ, will occasionally pose for me. So I appreciate your skills.

The lens seems sharp enough (what f-stop were these taken at?). If it works for you, there really isn't any reason to consider another lens unless you would benefit from IS. I suggest you rent one of the other lenses for a week and shoot with it to see whether it is an improvement in terms of your shooting style.

If you can provide more technical details on the images, I'd appreciate it.

Jim

Looks like you got them up. I prefer to use the "original" size when linking from pbase because I don't like what pbase resizing does to some of my images. That said, I usually only put 600 or 800 pixels max on the long side for web images, so I don't have to worry about ending up with a huge image.

The cats are cool. I've really only done a couple of cat shoots. One was for a rescue and the other was sort of impromptu as the cat walked into the middle of one of my dog shoots.

Thanks everybody for the comments! Heres a little more technical information. In re the lighting: the light varied in each location. For Gracie (the calico) and Skye (the grey) I had natural light and a built in flash. I also have a Canon SPeedlite 430x which I used for the tortie kitten. That shoot was the most challenging for me, because there is almost no overhead or natural light in that home. My ISO on SKye and Gracie was 400; for the kitten, it is 1600.
I wonder about using a diffuser. Any thoughts on that? Or on decreasing the noise in general for low light situations?

I agree about the background being busy. I am going to photograph again this weekend, and I've requested that we use a plain light colored background only this time.

I am willing to purchase lighting, (strobe, etc) put I am not really sure what kind I need, and what would be portable. I could use some advice on that. I think it would be invaluable, since there is so much variation in light available in people's homes.

My f/stop for all pics is f4. If I pushed it to f6 would it separate the subject from the background a little more?

So what do you all think; am I "dreaming" to think I might be able to sell my photos? I'm feeling like this is something I can do, especially since I have a good feel for cats. Pet photography isn't an oversaturated market in my area so that's a plus; in my experience, people photographers will take pictures of family pets, but it isn't their specialty. That's one reason I think shooting on location is good for pets (again, especially cats); I expect most of them will be more relaxed in their own surroundings than they are in a studio.

There is always room to grow and learn, and this is an excellent forum for that! But it's nice to think I have the groundwork. How did all of you get your start? Are pets a certain percentage of your business?

The one thing I did was study people who I wanted to photograph like. Here are a couple of my favorite cat photographers

http://www.prestonsmithphoto.com/

http://www.nwpphotoforum.com/ubbthreads/JM_Pieces/hflick/hflick_pt1.htm?Cat=0

Particularly read Helmi's article. It is *excellent*. I really don't do cats, as like Helmi is a cat person, I am a dog person.

I have looked at each of your pics and really would recommend that you use some kind of noise reduction software such as noise ninja etc.
Noise happens mostly when you are shooting in dark places with your iso set high to gain speed of shot such as ISO 800 etc. You'd be surprised how much better those images could look when the noise is reduced or removed. I hope you take this as constructive help and not criticism as the whole point of these forums is to help each other to become more successful in what we do.

Tori,
doing what you love is not "dreaming". It's the objective in life . You have excellent photographic skills and very good rapport with your subjects. That's very important.

As for some technical advice: you need consistent lighting -- even on location -- so you can clean up those images. I have 2 Alien Bees B400 strobes that I take everywhere with me whether it's in my studio, at a dog show for formal portraits or in somebody's home. That way, I can always control my lighting. My "typical" shooting ISO with them is 200 and my F-stop is F8.0. That insures sharp images from each lens and low noise.

The downside of using strobes for cats is that they can get spooked by the flash. Some dogs have issues with that as well but, overall, I can get my subjects used to the flash better than I can try to squeeze light in places there isn't any.

As for how I got into the "pet" business, I've been a professional photographer for over 30 years doing commercial work, weddings, events, etc. I started shooting dog shows when we became active in showing dogs about 12 years ago. That naturally migrated into shooting the dogs in more natural settings such as my studio or in the home. Right now, pet portraits account for about 70% of my business if I include those we shoot for advertising purposes.

The key to any business is how you market it. Once you know you can deliver the images, then you need to find people who want what you're selling. And you need to be able to reach them. Photography is the easy part .

Jim

+1 on Jim's advice on lighting. I also use bee's. I also use my 580ex II with a softbox but I will say I find pet's more intimidated by the large camera with bracket and softbox than the studio lights. Typically I'll just use umbrellas with my B400's. Under the right circumstances I will use a B1600 with a 48" octabox. Another thing to consider that I would highly recommend is a 5 in 1 reflector. Even if you are alone have the get parent give you a hand, reflectors are amazing and can really light up a dark subject, even indoor using window light, keeps the pet parent busy and out of your way as well.

One thing to be careful of. When forced to shoot high ISO and then use a tool like noise ninja, although the tool is great, with pets you typically want fine detail like hair and those tools can really over soften. I use noise ninja but seldom on pet shots.

Another benefit of the lights is they will freeze action. If you shoot outdoors and your budget allows, also think about Paul Buff's Vegabond II. I have one and it is awesome for locations with no power. The cybercync's are awesome as well. If you decide to buy bee's, I would recommend B800's over the B400's. Little difference in rice and twice the power. Start with one light and an umbrella and remotes and you have a reasonable priced quality solution, and very portable. Conquer using one light and then buy more one at a time.

Definitely no offense taken, Britannicus.

It seems that my next step is to work on the lighting issues. I will do some reasearch on the brands you all use and recommend and see what I can do. I think mastering one light at a time is definitely the way to go!

I will keep everyone posted, and I also appreciate continuing advice. I am going to photograph a kitten this weekend - maybe try for some holiday themed photos. She's a tortie, so Halloween pics would be fun with her.

In the meantime, I'll investigate strobes and other lighting options.. Is anyone here from the Tulsa, Edmond or OKC area? I was hoping to maybe rent some glass (85mm and so on) to see if prime lenses made a big difference in my portraits. However, I am having difficulty finding a photography shop that rents equipment in my area.

One more question:

With limited funds, and a lens that is working for me already, should I be saving for an extra camera body and flash before extra lenses? It's a lot of money, but I don't ever want to have to cancel a shoot because my camera broke..... do all of you go to a shoot with more than one camera? Ever had a Murphy's Law day?

I carry three cameras with me to all shoots. Up until recently I have had a back-up of every piece of equipment, but I've culled that down some by using lenses with overlapping capability and selling off some of the dupes.

You can do a lot with a simple speedlight, inexpensive light stand and an umbrella, while you're waiting on getting a set of "real" strobes.

I don't know Canon well enough to judge whether you have a "good enough" body to start with, but in general, lenses are always a better investment than bodies. That said, if you only have one, I would certainly look at getting a back up.

Before making any purchases, I'd do a lot of study on what you like about other cat photographs. You'll develop your own style, but, those who are already successful are so not because of lenses or other equipment, but, because they know how to light and pose. They know how to set the animal off to show their best.

Tori,
lots of folks think they can only rent cameras and lenses at a local store. Actually, the best places are online services like LensRentals.com or LensDepot.com. I've rented from both and both are excellent. They'll ship you the lens with packaging and label for return postage. And they both provide superb customer service along with insurance in case you damage the lens during rental.

In the case of LensDepot.com, they also rent lighting so you could try out some of the equipment you're hearing about. I recently rented their Vagabond II for a show where I couldn't get to the AC and it worked great with my Bees.

Bob's advice is good. I've never found the 400s inadequate but for the price difference the 800s are probably a better deal. And if you can find the budget for a Vagabond, do it. It's great for places where you can't reach AC or outdoor shooting with your strobes or just overall control of every lighting situation without having to run long extension cords.

As for a backup camera body, yes, it's a great investment. If your current lens is giving you decent image quality, the best next investment, IMHO, is a backup body. In fact, if you can upgrade and keep your existing body as a backup, that would be even better. Prices for used semi-pro bodies like the 30D and 40D are very competitive right now. As are refurbished bodies from Adorama. Check them out at www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=searchresults&searchinfo=Refurbished By Canon.

Don't overlook used lenses or bodies. Lots of people like to upgrade frequently and what they are getting rid of may make a perfect addition to your camera bag. Places like Adorama, B&H and KEH offer great selections of used equipment and, in general, it's in excellent condition.

We all work on limited budgets . So we learn to stretch our $$$ whenever possible.

Jim

Hi guys, nice discussion. I don't mean to be rude here and just jump in. My favorite lense for pets is my Nikkor 300mm. I actully prefer my old Nikon F3 to my new D200, but that is another topic. The 300mm gives a different look to the photo, but more important, I am not sticking the lense in the face of the pet, some customer's pets are extremely shy. The less bashful pets, I like the Nikkor 135mm portriat lense.

Emily,
long lenses are great if you have the room to use them. My studio shots have 15 feet between me and the subject. A 300 mm isn't going to work under those conditions. Same in most houses when I go on location.

For outdoor shooting, I use the 70-200 zoom and I do like the compression you get at the longer settings but I don't like working that far away from my subjects since I interact with them a lot. It's a matter of how you work with the animals I guess. I get their trust and then talk to them. It seems to work in the majority of cases.

Jim